Help!!

I did a new build with a barebones and add 2 Gb RAM and an Intel P4 3.4 motherboard. I ran a registry cleaner on my old hard drive before moving it to the new box and motherboard.

When I fired up the new one it found my Primary HD and my Seconday HD but would not boot. I took my old XP Program an put in in my cd drive and told it to boot from there but it still want load or boot. Any suggestions on getting it running? I thought this would be a pice of cake and it was till I turned it on! HELP!!

Easiest answer? Reformat/reinstall. When installing, XP installs drivers specific to the manufacturer of the motherboard and processor. You need to reformat in order to get the correct drivers installed.

If attempting a MB swap the correct process is:
1) making sure you have all the cd/dvd driver versions, then backup data, favorite DRM liscences etc,
2)go into device manager and uninstall every device listed sound, video ,mb, etc. This wipes the window registry install.
3) power down and put the system back together with new MB.
4) Boot and follow the found new HW wizard. This is successful 95% of the time. If all else follow the format and reinstall route. You may have top do that any way since your started the prosecc incorrectly.

mtak - right idea wrong changes...
If attempting a MB swap the correct process is:
1) making sure you have all the cd/dvd driver versions, then backup data, favorite DRM liscences etc,.

Click to expand...

Ok, but the drivers were already working... he is staying on XP..?? Why would the device drivers work with one MB (on XP) and not the next newer one?? Not to mention if he changes the BIOS to boot from CD-ROM it should pull basic device drivers to boot the CD-ROM... and will not do so??? what gives?

4) Boot and follow the found new HW wizard. This is successful 95% of the time. If all else follow the format and reinstall route. You may have top do that any way since your started the prosecc incorrectly.

Click to expand...

OK, still stumped... HOW can you do this if it will not boot?
It WONT boot at all, and wont even boot from CD-ROM either what then??

I was on my way to a friends house when he called me to help so I gave him the website...
Dad,

if you read and havent gotten it fixed yet give me a call and I can try and help you, sorry was over at our friends house late.

The older CD/HD etc are controlled through the IDE hardware in the chipset. Different chipsets (VIA, Nvidia, Intel) need different drivers. If the wrong driver is installed on the HD it gets loaded by windows on boot.

The PCI devices section under System in device mangler include parts of the PCI to ide drivers. Device drivers like PCI Bridges have to be for the correct hardware. Also the IDE drivers themselves under IDE Controllers have to be the correct version for the chipset.

With all the fancy drivers manually uninstalled (DMA, UDMA, etc) just the basic 33 mhz device drivers in the bios get loaded. The chipset hardware for these is standardized and smart enough to talk to the HD and load the more advanced drivers (if the registry is pointing at the right versions).

Strip everything out of device manager (i.e. the associated registry entries) and you are basically booting into a new computer with minimal, standardized interfaces, but all of your program registry entries stay the same so you don't have to reload everything. I've had fairly good results with this technique going between various via and nforce chipsets.